New party ad stresses Albertans' struggles on affordability, health — light on details of how to fix them. Nearly a year and a half after Naheed Nenshi began serving as Alberta NDP leader, and about two years out from the next scheduled election, his party has determined it’s time to reintroduce him to Albertans this week. The newly released video...
The numbers certainly conclude that if all opposition MPs vote against the budget then the government will fall. But will that happen and will it happen next week? All that on the heels of the budget and the latest major projects list? That and this question -- Is Mark Carney still green? All this with Chantal Hebert and Bruce Anderson...
The first of three fundraising deadlines for the NDP leadership race landed Friday, and two candidates are at risk of falling short of the requirements. A campaign spokesperson for Tanille Johnston, a Campbell River B.C. city councillor, said she will "most likely" be able to make the $25,000 payment.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is among the dignitaries attending the launch of the northwest expansion of a light rail project in the Montreal area. Carney and Premier Francois Legault were among the first invited aboard to ride the Deux-Montagnes branch of the Reseau express metropolitain, or REM, before it opens to the public on Monday.
Former immigration minister Lloyd Axworthy, a prominent global champion for refugees, said he believes Canada is putting its reputation as a welcoming place for refugees at risk through recent federal policy shifts. Those shifts, he said, include the Carney government's new border security bill, C-12, which would limit the ability of individuals who have been in Canada for more than...
6 in 10 Canadians think that the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement will be renewed with major changes (37%) or minor changes (23%). Meanwhile, three in ten (30%) Canadians think that it will not be renewed. Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,045 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, between October 27th...
A new province-wide survey conducted by Abacus Data reveals a clear preference among Ontarians for traffic calming infrastructure over the continued use of automated speed cameras. While the Ford government maintains a favourable standing with much of the electorate, the findings show that a pivot away from speed cameras and toward more visible, community-based safety interventions would be met with...
The success of the Zohran Mamdani campaign in the New York mayoral race has progressives all over the world taking notice. So it’s not unsurprising that Canadian progressives would look south for some inspiration on how to run a campaign that can actually win over voters.
In the heart of LNG and mining investment territory, Terrace B.C., Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday unveiled his latest list of nation building projects being given high federal priority. Two of those projects – the North Coast Transmission Line and Ksi Lisims LNG will have a direct impact on Terrace, a town poised for decades of growth. “We’re super...
The parliamentary budget officer projects Ottawa will blow past the new fiscal anchors set out in last week's 2025 federal budget. Interim budget officer Jason Jacques says in a new analysis of the budget that Ottawa is set to run an average deficit of $64.3 billion over the next five years -- double the level set out in the federal...
There are moments in a city’s history when its resilience is tested — when decisions made in distant boardrooms send shockwaves through our streets, homes, and hearts. Stellantis’ announcement to end production of the Jeep Compass at Brampton’s Assembly Plant is one such moment, threatening the livelihoods of 3,000 workers and shaking our community.
For centuries, alchemists promised and failed to turn lead into gold. What is most astounding is that even after each debunking, these charlatans would repackage their discredited schemes as something new with fresh jargon and different salesmen, luring wave after wave of hopeful dupes eager for golden miracles. Instead of promising to turn lead into gold, today’s alchemist-in-chief, Mark Carney...
Over the past decade, I have watched the public mood shift in ways I have not seen in twenty years of tracking opinion. Canadians are not just frustrated. They are unsettled. They are anxious about money, identity, stability, and the future. And they are looking at the people in charge of teams, companies, institutions, and governments to make sense of...
When Mark Carney launched the Major Projects Office in late August, he said it was designed to streamline regulatory approvals and help structure financing for proposals deemed to be in the national interest. Article content The impression left was that the government would move “at speeds not seen in a generation” to secure community consent and unlock private-sector investments for...
We have turned Canada’s major-project announcements into what feels like a raffle, with everyone from investors to businesses to economists checking to see whose number comes up. According to the federal government, there are hundreds upon hundreds of major projects in the federal inventory, 32 considered for Major Projects Office attention, and only 11 hand-picked so far.
Billed as an immediately necessary measure that would unlock investment and spur economic growth, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s signature piece of legislation, Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act, was rushed through Parliament last June — amid outcries from the NDP, the Bloc Québécois and the Green Party — for apparently no good reason. The bill, which grants cabinet the power...
If a week can feel like a lifetime in politics, someone should ask Pierre Poilievre how many lives he lived in the past week. Normally, when a minority government releases a budget, the leader of the Official Opposition spends the time after talking about all the ways the budget failed to meet the moment for Canadians. Instead, Poilievre spent budget...
It’s official: there is no longer a political cost for a government invoking the Notwithstanding Clause, meaning that rights will increasingly be under threat in this country. While Quebec had set the precedent in 2019 for pre-emptively invoking the clause, which can override a certain number of Charter rights for a period of up to five years, in order to...
I MOVED TO MONTREAL to live in 1975. An old-stock francophone from Ottawa, I felt at home the moment I arrived. Despite being a stranger to the city—I spent hours walking up and down Saint Laurent Boulevard, the city’s dividing line between east and west, English and French, rich and poor—I knew this was where I belonged. I didn’t recognize...
Meeting Canada’s AI moment requires all of us – government, business, academia and entrepreneurs – to bet on Canada. Success demands that businesses embed AI into real operations while policy makers create conditions that reward sovereign innovation. Both matter. Both must move now.
A 30-day sprint cannot deliver sound ideas in the public interest. A proper review needs to recognize the threat of rising U.S. authoritarianism. Canada’s minister of artificial intelligence recently announced a “30-day national sprint” to help the government renew the country’s AI strategy and secure its oversight of ever-expanding digital technologies.
If Canada is plunged into an election next week, we can already call it one of the most unwanted campaigns this country has ever seen. Gord Johns, one of the New Democrat MPs who gets a vote on that matter next week, said it bluntly to the Star this week: “I know certainly Canadians don’t want an election,”
Last week was an awful one for the Conservative Party. It should have been a time when Leader Pierre Poilievre and his team were critiquing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget and laying out alternatives. Instead, they spent most of the week answering questions about Poilievre’s leadership as one of his Members of Parliament crossed the floor and joined the...
What happens when a political leader is both deeply admired and deeply disliked? As Parliament breaks for the week, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and his team may get a brief pause from the daily political grind, but the core of his public image is already well defined. He inspires intense loyalty among his supporters and equally intense opposition from his...
Last week, François-Philippe Champagne tabled the federal budget as Canada faces complex and consequential challenges: low growth and high unemployment, affordability pressures, a ruptured trade relationship with the United States, increased NATO commitments, technological transformations, climate change, and more.
When the Canadian government released its 2025 federal budget, it characterized a $2.7 billion reduction to international assistance funding over four years as “savings.” In other official summaries, it used even more obscure verbs to describe these cuts: “recalibrating,” “refocusing” and “re-baselining.”
Separate from those comments, the federal Conservative leader lauded his party for behaving like a government-in-waiting. “We’ve had very little dissent over the past year. When was the last time you saw an internal fight? This isn’t the Jerry Springer show; we’re not throwing chairs at each other,” he said. This was obviously long before Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer...
Both in Canada and the U.S., governments explicitly chose to train fewer doctors. We’re still dealing with the fallout. In the U.S., a 1980 government report forecast a “physician surplus” by the year 2000. It was wrong, and it justified the staffing bottlenecks that define today's familiar state of healthcare crisis, both in the profit-centric U.S., and in Canada’s relatively...
Protectionists, start your engines. On Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a “Buy Canadian” procurement policy that prioritizes Canadian suppliers for all manner of federal spending, including a second set of national “major projects” he’s announcing on Thursday. “We will build Canadian, by becoming our own best customer,” Carney intoned. Ottawa will allocate nearly $186 million in new funding to...
The problem with Remembrance Day is that we have short attention spans. Remembering our war dead, about 110,000 people who have been killed in our overseas wars, is a promise we make to ourselves when the memory of loss is fresh. The country goes to extraordinary lengths to mark the deaths of Canadian soldiers during a war. While the fighting...
The political strategy of “flooding the zone” is designed to disassemble people’s ability to react effectively to change. It was coined by Stephen Bannon and implemented by U.S. President Donald Trump when he came to office in January. But it is a strategy that has also landed in Canada with a dull thud. Prime Minister Mark Carney tipped his hat...
Fraternity houses across the nation may have taken offence when they were compared this weekend to the team around Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. It came from Chris d’Entremont, who was explaining in a CBC interview how he had grown disaffected enough with Conservative culture to cross the floor and become a Liberal MP.
Governments risk wasting taxpayer dollars and eroding public trust as they rush to buy artificial intelligence, warns a new report, and Canada is not immune to those risks as it moves to adopt AI solutions, say observers. A Nov. 10 report, Buying AI: Tools and Tips for Public Procurement released by Open Contracting Partnership (OCP), a global non-profit based in...
Mark Carney said there would be sacrifices. But more than a week after the prime minister revealed his highly-anticipated first budget, questions remain about what exactly those sacrifices will be and how they will come to fruition — and it might take some time before Canadians find out.
After an initial round of referrals to the new Major Projects Office that saw no Indigenous-led projects chosen, the second list of referrals includes some with Indigenous support, ownership or backing -- including a liquefied natural gas project. The list of projects earmarked for fast-track approval includes the Crawford nickel mine in Ontario, the Ksi Lisims LNG project on B.C.'s...
British Columbia Premier David Eby received approval from more than 93 per cent of delegates at the NDP's convention two years ago, and he's hoping for another "healthy majority" at this weekend's convention in Victoria. But since 2023, the NDP eked out a majority with just one seat to spare in last year's provincial election, and Eby's government has been...
The Swedish manufacturer of the Gripen fighter jet, SAAB, says 10,000 manufacturing and research jobs could land in Canada if Ottawa adds the aircraft to its military fleet. SAAB President and CEO Micael Johansson confirmed to CTV News during an interview at the company’s headquarters in Stockholm that he has talked to Ottawa about making Gripens on Canadian soil. He...
Government records show the federal government spent more than $19 billion on external professional and special services in 2024-25 -- an increase of almost $2 billion since last year and of about $8.5 billion since 2020. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat says the increase in spending on professional and special services is largely due to higher spending on engineering...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she's on board with Prime Minister Mark Carney's second batch of key major projects picked out for potential fast-track approval. Carney announced Thursday that seven additional major energy and infrastructure projects were being referred to his government's major projects office, after announcing an initial list of five back in September.
TERRACE, B.C., CANADA -- British Columbia now has four projects on the federal government's list of nation-building ventures, which Prime Minister Mark Carney says will add billions to the economy to move it away from an over-reliance on the United States.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is not ruling out an early election, ahead of the scheduled date of Oct. 5, 2027. Kinew says he was close to calling an early vote very recently -- when it looked like a NDP government bill to detain highly intoxicated people for up to 72 hours looked like it might not pass. The bill was...
Saab AB chief executive officer Micael Johansson confirmed on Thursday that his company is in talks with the federal government and Bombardier Inc. BBD-B-T -5.53%decrease to build Saab’s Gripen fighter jet under licence in Canada, which he said could create 10,000 jobs in the country and spawn a research network to develop other aircraft, including drones. “If Canada wants to...
Three critical mineral extraction projects, a nickel mine in Ontario and a transmission line on the northern B.C. coast are among the new initiatives added to the growing list of projects referred to the Major Projects Office. Prime Minister Mark Carney says the “transformational” projects announced Thursday in northern B.C. represent more than $56 billion in new investment and will...
The federal government on Thursday announced the latest batch of major building projects to be considered for fast-tracking under legislation passed in June, focused entirely on critical minerals and energy. The new list includes a hydroelectric project in Nunavut, the Crawford nickel mine in northern Ontario, the Nouveau Monde graphite mine in Quebec, and the Sisson tungsten mine in New...
OTTAWA -- Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Dan Rogers warns that spies from China and Russia have a significant interest in Canada's Arctic and those developing its potential.
A high-profile Nova Scotia politician was booed at a Remembrance Day event on Tuesday. Chris d’Entremont, the longtime Conservative MP who crossed the floor to join the Liberals last week, attended the ceremony at the legion in Annapolis Royal, N.S. When he laid a wreath in front of the stage, booing could be heard, sparking some grumbles from other members...
B.C. Liberal MP Jonathan Wilkinson says he is “not unhappy” as a member of the Liberal government, despite a significant shift in environmental policies under Prime Minister Mark Carney. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, pointed on Wednesday to reporting from the Toronto Sun that says Wilkinson – who served as both environment and climate change minister and energy and natural...
Housing advocates are lamenting "missed opportunities" in last week's federal budget, saying more effort will be needed to accelerate home construction and bring prices down. The Liberal government's 2025 budget tabled Nov. 4 -- its first under Prime Minister Mark Carney -- pledged to spend $25 billion on housing over the next five years. The budget noted Canada's "steep housing...
Prime Minister Mark Carney secured broad support from across party lines and provincial borders for some major items in his first federal budget, new polling suggests. But one pollster warns Carney risks reopening old regional wounds if he doesn't show progress soon on critical infrastructure and housing files. Leger polling this week showed broad support among respondents for a number...
Canada’s foreign minister suggested that it is not her job to determine if the United States has breached international law when striking alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea. Foreign Minister Anita Anand (Oakville East, Ont.) made the remark at the closing press conference of the final gathering of top diplomats of Canada’s G7 presidency in Ontario’s Niagara region on...
Top diplomats from the Group of Seven nations gathered in the Niagara region this week to discuss global crises -- but Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said she did not broach stalled trade negotiations between Ottawa and the United States. Anand and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met on the margins of the summit Wednesday, where they spoke about...
The Crawford Nickel Project in Ontario and a hydroelectric project in Nunavut are expected to be added to Canada's major projects list. Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in Terrace, B.C., Thursday to announce the next batch of major projects the government is submitting to its Major Projects Office. A senior Ontario government source says the Crawford Nickel Project, based...
Another Alberta separatist has travelled south of the border to woo American conservatives. In recent months, members of the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), a separatist organization, have boasted of meetings in Washington, D.C., with senior-level officials from the U.S. administration. Now, the only political party affiliated with Alberta’s independence movement, the Republican Party of Alberta (RPA), is making its own...
Betting on Poilievre is betting that someone who’s been in politics for 20 years will grow more popular, and the odds tell us that only rarely happens. The list of politicians who gain popularity after 20 years in public life is short. When it happens, it involves a major change in the politician, or a bigger change in the world...
A watchdog that investigates the fair and humane treatment of federal prisoners is leaving his post two years early after becoming exasperated with what he says is the government’s unwillingness to address systemic human rights issues.
A senior government official says the market is picking up on signals Ottawa is sending about rebuilding the military. Stefanie Beck, deputy minister of National Defence, says she's "never had so many banks" and pension plans come to see her. Beck made the comments to an industry crowd gathered in Ottawa today for a Canadian Global Affairs Institute procurement conference.
In his first media availability since two MPs announced they’re leaving his caucus, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he plans to continue leading the party as he has been. When asked by a reporter to respond to comments by former Conservative MP Chris d’Entremont — who last Tuesday announced he was crossing the floor to the Liberals and later blamed...
Eight fewer departments and agencies are being asked to slash their budgets at least 15 per cent over the next three years, a move one economist says shows Ottawa's cost cutting exercise was not "thought through." Earlier this year, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne directed most ministers to find ways to cut their departments' program spending by 15 per cent over...
Canadians’ concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump and the state of relations with our southern neighbour are once again on the rise, according to new data from Nanos Research. Nearly 18 per cent of respondents in Nanos Research’s weekly issues tracking said Trump and Canada-U.S. relations are their greatest concern, doubling from 8.8 per cent last month. The next issue...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Wednesday he is not reflecting on his leadership style after two MPs announced they were leaving his caucus — including one who cited the leader's "negative" approach to politics as the reason why he's calling it quits on the party. Speaking to reporters in Calgary at his first press conference since the defections last week...
- Canada's premiers say infrastructure investments and the state of U.S.-Canada trade negotiations are high on their agenda for an upcoming meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney. Carney will host a virtual meeting with the nation's provincial and territorial leaders on Monday and the premiers laid out their priorities in a letter to the prime minister this morning. They are...
The NDP is considering how to fast-track its campaign readiness in the case of a snap election, sources say, as its MPs weigh a budget vote that could trigger the fall of the Carney government. The NDP is weighing how to fast-track its campaign readiness in the case of a snap election, sources say, as its MPs weigh a budget...
Thousands of documents released by the House Oversight Committee offer a new glimpse into what Jeffery Epstein's relationships with business executives, reporters, academics and political players looked like over a decade.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- Lawyers for two of President Donald Trump's foes who have been charged by the Justice Department are set to ask a federal judge Thursday to dismiss the cases against them, saying the prosecutor who secured the indictments was illegally installed in the role.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump loves offering outlandish ideas and then repeating them until they start to become mainstream -- even if they don't always come to fruition.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrat Adelita Grijalva was sworn in as the newest member of Congress on Wednesday, more than seven weeks after she won a special election in Arizona to fill the House seat last held by her late father.
President Isaac Herzog announced Wednesday that US President Donald Trump had written him to ask him to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently standing trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
LONDON (AP) -- President Donald Trump 's threat to bring a billion-dollar lawsuit against the BBC has cast a shadow over the British broadcaster's future, but it could also be a bluff with little legal merit.
LONDON (AP) -- The sudden resignation of two top bosses at the BBC over the editing of a speech by U.S. President Donald Trump dealt a huge blow to the broadcaster, which is revered by some in Britain as a national treasure but derided by others as outdated and left-leaning.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Microsoft said Monday it will be shipping Nvidia's most advanced artificial intelligence chips to the United Arab Emirates as part of a deal approved by the U.S. Commerce Department.
Continued staffing shortages in air traffic control facilities around the country were again causing delays at airports on Friday as the government shutdown neared the one-month mark.
Violent crime in Canada’s cities has not only risen – it has become a growing threat affecting urban communities across the country. While headlines often focus on year-to-year fluctuations in crime, the Urban Violent Crime Report, Volume 2 reveals a deeper and more troubling reality: over the past decade, violent crime has increased significantly across Canadian cities, spreading beyond Toronto...
Dubbed a “generational investment” that will help define the next century, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first federal Budget, tabled on November 4, includes broadly anticipated themes. The 400+ page document proposes trimming day-to-day operational government spending, increasing investments in capital projects and the military, and introducing measures to make Canadian businesses more competitive. The goals are clear: “More than 75%...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Pierre Poilievre’s recent video attacking Mark Carney could have been a strong argument. If not for the air quotes. When he says Carney promised he could “handle Trump” and “negotiate a win,” his fingers twitch into the familiar inverted-comma gesture. It’s a tiny move, but it says everything. Air quotes don’t persuade; they perform. They turn conviction into commentary and...
As Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “Donald Trump wants to break us so America can own us.” But what if Trump decides to use military power along with economic tariffs? An Arctic expert writing in The Globe and Mail says we shouldn’t think of tanks or helicopters streaming over the border. Instead, an American show-of-force could begin with a single...
I am very worried that Canada is sleepwalking into potentially the most dangerous military project since the atom bomb. Trump’s Golden Dome will put thousands of weapons in space – one of the few places where there are no weapons today – and lock us into a new Cold War with Russia and China that will rob our children and...
At Issue this week: Prime Minister Mark Carney unveils the next round of nation-building projects he says will transform Canada’s economy. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre tries to move past party struggles. And François Legault’s fight with Quebec doctors.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled the next set of projects the federal government plans to prioritize in a bid to jumpstart Canada’s economy. The announcement focused on energy and mining, with six projects across the country ranging from liquefied natural gas to critical minerals. But many questions remain about how these projects will work and what disputes they will...
Prime Minister Mark Carney enters a make-or-break confidence vote on Monday still short of support, all while projecting confidence and bypassing the U.N. COP climate summit. On this episode of the Playbook Canada podcast, co-hosts Nick Taylor-Vaisey and Mickey Djuric dive into the budget math in the House, Carney’s climate calculations and Privy Council Clerk Michael Sabia’s pending shake-up of...
The decisions of one Conservative MP to cross the floor, and another to resign have sparked a wider conversation about whether Pierre Poilievre should remain leader of the party. Those moves also forced the Conservatives into their version of damage control, given the stories of intense pressure campaigns and disputed accounts of office screaming sessions.
